A letter from May 26th, 2020

Dear FutureMe, Holy moly, the world is crazy right now! It is Monday May 18, 2020. This is our last week of new content for school. We have been online schooling since Wednesday March 18th. On Friday March 13th, we were sent home for the weekend with much uncertainty. We were told to bring home textbooks, Chromebooks, and any other necessary items for schooling online. But, they told us that we will probably be going back to school on Monday. Not so. We received an announcement over the weekend on loose instructions about how online schooling would work. It was mostly up to the individual teacher as to how everything would play out. We only have school from 8:30 to noon, Monday through Friday. Content for most classes went down a lot. We were uncertain about what AP tests would look like. We didn’t know what anything would be like. Some classes decided to meet daily, on Zoom, Google Meet, or Canvas Conferences. Some teachers I have had contact with multiple times a week. Some, I haven’t heard from in a month. To be honest, I have been mostly bored with school. I can do almost all of my day’s work in 45 minutes. I understand, however, that some people are struggling with everything that is going on. Some people need to take care of their siblings because their parents are essential workers. It has just been so different, and I don’t like it. I am a very social person, so not being able to see other people has definitely been a struggle for me. Not being able to see family has been extremely difficult for me and especially my grandma. Great Grandma Herbers’ passing was very difficult. We couldn’t see her before she passed away. It all happened so quickly. We could not have a funeral. We had a 15 minute graveside service, and we all had to stand apart and couldn’t hug one another. There were only around a dozen people there. Not even all of my mom’s aunts came. This was a woman with many friends who was active in the church all her life and whose family had lived in that area for generations. There should have been a funeral that was packed with sympathetic people. It was really hard for my mom and my grandpa. I am also disappointed about my activities I am not able to do. I was very excited for tennis this spring, but that is not happening anymore. I have not been able to do Martial Arts in months. Ukulele is cancelled. Cross Country may even be cancelled. But, things are looking up. I am going to send Tammy an email today, asking if I can record videos of classes online. I will also send videos to ukulele. I took my APUSH AP test on Friday. It was one essay about a very narrow topic, the societal changes after the American Revolution (a topic we had explored before, so I was fine). I am glad the test was over, but I will miss the class. APUSH has definitely been the best class I have ever taken. It was so fun! Because of APUSH, I am thinking about going into a job related to history. Well, let's get the numbers and politics out of the way before I say what has been good about this. As of 10:35 AM on May 18th 2020, there have been 4,748,356 total cases in the World. The United States is number one (yay, we’re winning!) in both cases (1,490,195) and deaths (89,636). Wisconsin has a total of 12,543 cases and 453 deaths. La Crosse County has had 45 confirmed cases. The Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the Stay at Home order because they said the supervisor of the Health Department (the one who extended the order) did not have the authority to issue an order. Ultraconservative buffoons. This virus is real, guys! Striking down the order is not going to help. The reason we have so few cases is because of the steps we have taken to isolate ourselves. We are going to go backwards, I know it. In the two days after the order was struck down. La Crosse County cases doubled. People flocked to bars because, I guess, you haven’t been drinking enough at home. People are just dumb sometimes. This is why Wisconsin gets a bad rap. It's because we do backward thinking things like this. Okay, off the soap box. I think that our President does not deserve all (some, but not all) of the flack that he is getting. Everyone who is saying that they would do better is foolish. He would probably be just fine giving the presidency to someone else right about now. There have been good things. I have listened to new podcasts. I have been working out more. My immediate family has spent much more time together, which is great! I have been able to get back into my interests. We have been able to slow down life and not have to run everywhere all the time. I know we will all get through this. But, I am not going to try to make any predictions because I would be foolish and arrogant to think that I could see the future. Overall, I know we’ll all be alright. Sincerely, Sixteen Year Old You